When last we left out intrepid band of heroes (namely, me and my friends) we were caught in a dilemma : stuck there in Denny’s with a band of mamasitas and their banging, shrieking brood, and denied the option of switching to the front of the restaurant by a loud crowd of playoff watching Canucks fans.

What were we to do? We didn’t really want to get up and leave and go find another restaurant. So Felicity did a perfectly natural and reasonable thing : she shushed the loud little ones.

Then we hear a voice from that table saying “Excuse me, did you just shush my baby?”

Aw shit. Now it’s on.

I had heard of this happening before. People angrily defending their right to be terrible parents by letting their children be extremely loud in public. And I had been dreading the day it would happen to me. Before last Friday night, it had come close to happening to me, but it had never quite landed right on me like that. Now there I was, in the middle of it.

Like I said in part 1, my main worry is (and was) my ability to keep my temper under control under stressful situations. I am mostly a fairly mellow and easygoing fellow, someone who believes in going with the flow to get along and letting people be themselves. It’s how I am and how I like to be. Mostly.

But one thing that really brings out that fraction remaining from that “mostly” is rudeness. I have my own sense of what is proper behaviour and what is insensitivity and rudeness, and when someone really violates that sense, that is when you are mostly likely to see my more fiery and confrontational side come out.

It often comes as quite a surprise even to those who know me, because like I said I am mostly friendly and mellow and harmless and relaxed, so to see me suddenly be All Up In That with someone is rather a shock.

So now the word war is engaged between our two tables, with me and my friends exchanging verbal volleys between tables. Our numbers were roughly even. Of course, we’re smart intellectual types. Which helps a lot less than you would think.

I don’t recall exactly all that was said. I have this weird thing : when I shift into Action Mode, I often have trouble remembering much of what occurs later. It’s very freaky, honestly, and kind of scares me. All I can think of is that I spend so much time in a more contemplative frame of mind that those rare moments when I switch into the Be Here Now mode leave the little note-taking elements of my mind all in a tither at the sudden change and they don’t know how to index the memories properly.

It’s not something I like to think about.

Anyhow, so I don’t remember all that was said, but I remembering yelling something like “I can’t believe that it somehow missed you how wrong this is. This is not normal. This is not how babies are supposed to act. ” and “Just because you don’t hear it any more doesn’t mean that nobody else does. ”

Anyhow, the skirmish was fairly brief, and concluding with us just getting up and walking out of the back up to the front, where Felicity stopped to get information from the manager of that Denny’s on how we could complain to the Denny’s head office about this whole incident. At this point, it was up in the air whether we would ever come back to that Denny’s, but we certainly weren’t planning on staying or paying for the drinks and appies Joe and I had already consumed.

The manager was very understanding, and told us that it was Denny’s policy to never ask someone to quiet down their child, and we understood that and were not blaming the Denny’s people for the whole thing at all. They have always been really great to us, but there was just no way we could put up with this insanity. I honestly feel bad that they got caught up in this at all. They’re great people.

But as we are talking with the manager, a funny thing happens. The Baby Mamas get up and leave on their own. And a few minutes later, the ringleader comes in, contrite as can be, and apologizes to us, and shakes my hand and everything. Turns out she’d had a very bad day (to say more would be indiscreet) and she was very sorry for what she had said.

Well. Hell. On the brink of defeat, we won. Instead of us leaving and never coming back, we ended up staying and having our usual Denny’s meal without incident. The manager even gave us half off the cost of our meals as an apology for the whole thing.

And, what was most important to me personally, my friends congratulated me on my articulate defense of our cause. That really meant a lot to me, because I often don’t know whether I am doing well or not, and I need all the affirmation I can get.

I did good.

So thus endeth our tale of battle, loss, and victory. Our faith in Denny’s and humanity is restored, and we retain our Friday night meeting spot.

Feel weird to win. I’m not used to it!